Why cant Wal-Mart do anything right?

[Bugshu]

Occasionally when on an extended road trip and away from my tools, I will have my oil changed on the road. I dont mind having it done with my older vehicle and its reached the age and lifespan where Im not overly concerned about getting an extra 200K out of it instead of merely an extra 100K more miles out of it.

Anyhow, last May I had the oil changed at Wal-Mart because I like their supertech filters and find them a good value. For $13 you can have a cheap dino supertech oil plus a supertech filter and can do a bit of shopping while you wait. Time matters when you are on the road.

Anyhow, probably the only reason I ever pay for the Wal-Mart oil change is because of their supertech filter. When I have WM to change the oil I always request the Supertech oil change.

Today, I did a quick filter change and the car had a fram oil filter on it. The oil is still golden and probably didnt need to be changed but Im kind of picky about not abusing filters.

If I wanted a supertech oil change with a supertech filter then why is Wal-Mart putting orange Frams on my car? They sure didnt mention any substitution when I paid them. Im not even sure the oil change guy looked at the work order to see what had been ordered. He probably heard oil change and then did the standard change. I sure wouldnt dare spend $30 for a Wal-Mart synthetic change.

I doubt 3 months with a Fram will kill my car and Im conservative about changing the filters anyway. Filters are cheap and easy to change. Its good to catch a mistake before 6 months go by. Still, this irks me.

Why cant Wal-Mart do anything right?

I wonder if Rob Walton would like his vehicle being treated this way.

Im about ready to switch to Amsoil "Champion Labs Filters" and go to extended synthetic oil changes just so I wont have to do business with Wal-Marts when Im on the road.

Happy Motoring All,

Bugshu

 

[eljefino]

If you want a supertech filter, you should ask for it. While frams are 80 cents more on the shelf individually, they use pro-pack frams in the service bay that come a dozen to a box. Both probably cost Wally about the same... so ask.

 

[Matt89]

They probably thought they were doing you a 'favor' by giving you that 'higher quality' filter

 

[T-Keith]

Wal-mart uses Fram filters normally, even with the Supertech oil change. They get bulk frams for about $1.88 a piece. You have to specially request a supertech filter, if you didn't you definitely won't get one. If you did, maybe the person writing you up didn't tell the guy changing the oil?

-T

 

[HerkyJim]

Wal Mart does many things right. Just ask K-Mart and Montgomery Wards and Sears Roebuck!


At least you got a Fram. I inherited my dad's Plymouth and the oil filter that had last been installed at the Shell station he used for many years was just a white metal shell. No markings of any kind. Real "generic". It might not have even had any guts for all I know!

 

[Bugshu]

Wal-Marts supertech oil change is advertised as supertech filter and supertech oil. I dont see why I should have to "ask" them to use a supertech filter when the information given clearly states that supertech is what you get.

Seriously, Wal-Mart shouldnt advertise a Supertech special and then give you a fram.

There are 5 stages to success.

1. A dream
2. Hard Work
3. Accomplishment of the dream
4. Enjoying success
5. Taking the success for granted and losing it

Sears, Monkey Wards, and KMart cycled through the stages and now WM seems to be heading into stage 5 with hurried precision. WM bullies its suppliers and treats its employees like dogs and takes its customers for granted. You can do that when you are the big dog on the block but it catches up to you in the end.

Happy Motoring All,

Bugshu

 

[edwardh1]

WM bullies its suppliers and treats its employees like dogs and takes its customers for granted. You can do that when you are the big dog on the block but it catches up to you in the end.
______________
Lots of web stories about this -
Vlasic pickles and Levi jeans both quit walmart cause they always wanted every year for the prices to be less (if you are in business you know many many business expenses go up every year regardless of what you read in the newspaper about "no inflation")
After a lot of price cuts are made there is nothing left but to cheapen the product til its not like it used to be

 

[T-Keith]

Back to the subject at hand, The supertech oil change is not advertised with a supertech filter. You don't get a quaker state filter with a quaker state oil change do you? A mobil 1 filter with a Mobil 1 oil change?

It says they use Fram filters on everything they have, regardless of oil used.

-T

 

[edwardh1]

WM bullies its suppliers and treats its employees like dogs and takes its customers for granted. You can do that when you are the big dog on the block but it catches up to you in the end.
______________
Lots of web stories about this -
Vlasic pickles and Levi jeans both quit walmart cause they always wanted every year for the prices to be less (if you are in business you know many many business expenses go up every year regardless of what you read in the newspaper about "no inflation")
After a lot of price cuts are made there is nothing left but to cheapen the product til its not like it used to be

 

[Ray H]

There's also the possibility that particular Wally*World was out of the ST filter your engine uses. The irony is that since most of the general public associates "Fram" with "qualtiy" it probably figures its gotten a good deal when they see orange jutting out from their engine blocks. (Between Fram and DEX-COOL, a newly board-certified psychiatrist could make a lucrative career just off us obsessive-compulsive, orange-phobics on this board alone!) Now, if Wally*World prefilled your new Fram oil filter with DEX-COOL, then, maybe, you'd have something to worry about...

 

[1977c10phxdriver]

I know its

but I just had to!!! LOL


Vlasic and levis

 

[nthach]

quote:

---

______________
Lots of web stories about this -
Vlasic pickles and Levi jeans both quit walmart cause they always wanted every year for the prices to be less [/QB]

---

Wally-World began selling Levi Strauss Signature, made by Levi's but cheap in quality and material. Personally, Wally-World's only redeming quality to me is cheap car stuff. My clothing money goes to the local Hollister(division on Abercrombie) in the mall.

 

[motorguy222]

Now lets be nice here.We are not orange- phobics,this is not a polite thing to say in our day and time.

It seems that some would say that WE only need to be EDUCATED about the benefits of ORANGE and how it is normal and expected to USE orange.

 

[Tim]

When I was young and foolish, I ran mostly Fram on a Volvo I bought new, for 275,000 miles.

Only one that gave me a problem was the one that ruptured when my PS motor mount broke! I was using the oversized PH8A during that episode.

BTW - oil light never came on. I saw blue smoke at each stoplight - it was dark out and I saw smoke in the headlights - but naturally assumed it was coming from some "loser". About the third light (and a couple miles down the road) I was the only car at the light, but the smoke was still evident!!! Imagine that!

Ran the car another 30,000 miles without any noticable effect. There was zero oil in that puppy by the time I shut her down.

Oil? Who needs stinking oil?


Tim

BTW - sorry for the hijack...couldn't resist!

 

[motorguy222]

The next time you get an oil/filter change at WM,notice that Fram filters are the advertised filter for such.At least they are in my area.

 

[1977c10phxdriver]

While not being a Fram fan anymore, I will say that my previous engine in my 77 truck went 167,000 miles using Fram filters and the cheapest oil I could find. It still ran good, but smoked on startup some. I built a new one cause I just wanted to build another engine, got bored I guess.

My new engine gets Amsoil synthetic, AC Delco filters and has a Frantz BP on it. But in the grand scheme of things, it probably won't add much to the total miles but will probably empty my pocket book faster changing all this stuff! LOL
Mark

 

[liquidballbearing]

T-Keith is most definitely correct on all of his information in this post. ALL oil changes at Wal-Mart include Fram Pro oil filters unless the customer provides the filter, requests a SuperTech, Motorcraft, or other Fram filter (TG,DG,XG.)

A stage of success that was left off of Bugshu's list would be getting all of the facts in any situation before making incorrect assumptions. I have prevented myself from embarassment several times over the years by "getting my ducks in a row" before I made ANY accusations.

 

[Bugshu]

Again, the sign said supertech oil change with supertech oil AND supertech oil filters. I didnt assume a thing. I read the sign they had posted and deduced that if the sign said you get a supertech filter that you actually get a supertech filter. Im not thrilled with ST oil and the attraction "was" the filter.

I did go to WMT last night with some friends after a pleasant dinner and went by the TLE and checked and they no longer offer the Supertech change. It seems that the $13 oil change is now a $20 oil change and that is their new "cheap" service.

I flat out guarantee you that if the supertech oil change had mentioned that I was getting a "fram" oil filter instead of a supertech filter that I would have made other plans.

If I assumed anything it was that WMT would perform the service they advertised without misinforming me.

I doubt that anybody was intentionally trying to rip me off but I do feel that the information presented on their sign was different than the service performed on the car.

And this is not good service. And this is a fact.

Happy Motoring All,

Bugshu

 

[T-Keith]

Was this a hand written sign? No Wal-mart I've ever been to offered anything but Fram filters in their oil changes.

-t

 

[Mike_dup1]

The new employees at Walmart get the crappy job. The guy doing some painting for me was telling what paint to get and says don't get it from Walmart. Claims he got 4 gallons of paint mixed to match a color on their chart. Only one problem, every gallon was a different shade, no 2 were alike. Had it almost done when the customer called him and pointed out the color variance. The kid who mixed his paint was only on the job for 3 hrs as it turned out and has screwed up everyone he mixed. They replaced the paint for free but he had to do the work over.